Get Hard – Five Reasons You’ll Love It

When a rich but seemingly vacuous financier James King (Will Ferrell) is sentenced to 10 years in prison for nefarious dealings, he concludes his only hope for survival is training himself for incarceration or learning to ��get hard.’ He hires his building's car-washer, Darnell Lewis (Kevin Hart), mistakenly thinking he has served time, to teach him how to do it. Hilarity ensures.

While the trailer does a good job of covering off this cornerstone aspect of the story, there is much more going on in Get Hard than slapstick antics and jokes about hiding objects in anuses, though fans of both will get their fill. The movie tackles racial stereotyping in a surprisingly clever way, banking on the chemistry of Ferrell and Hart to deliver the punchline.

Does it succeed? Oh yes, here’s why Get Hard is worth a peek...

Kevin Hart…

There’s a reason the diminutive comic actor is the hottest thing going right now. His slow but steady rise has allowed him time to develop his style and he’s all kinds of watchable. If you happened to catch his recent guest appearance on Saturday Night Live – one of the across-the-board funniest episodes in memory – you know the guy is a genius. In Get Hard, we get Hart full-stop. And his tininess – especially in contrast to the towering Ferrell – is mined for surprisingly endearing sight gags.

Will Ferrell…

That Ferrell is a fantastic comic actor is not exactly a stop-the-presses observation. But what makes him especially winning in Get Hard is his ability to persuasively play innocent which is crucial to several aspects of the plot. His James King is outwardly pompous but tender as a bunny underneath. It’s hard to imagine many actors being able to project almost childlike vulnerability convincingly. Ferrell nails it. Of course, there was his turn in Elf...

Ferrell and Hart together…

Rumour has it that Warner Bros. anticipates building some kind of franchise on these two (see also Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, Eddie Murphy and Judge Reinhold/Nick Nolte/Dan Aykroyd et al). It’s anyone’s guess whether that would work – sequels to Get Hard seem unlikely, so another storyline would have to be introduced. But for the moment, the two are great together.

It has a pretty astonishing cameo…

We don’t want to spoil it, but let’s just say you won’t see it coming, and you will laugh, laugh, laugh.

It’s confronts racial stereotyping smartly…

Which is to say Get Hard doesn’t pretend it doesn’t exist. It also acknowledges that some clichés are clichés for a reason. But audiences can handle the truth, and humorous left-hooks are landed on both sides of the black/white colour divide. The gay community gets a pretty solid jab, too.